Written Answers Monday 19 January 2009

Scottish Executive

Access for Disabled People

Stuart McMillan (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to develop a set of minimum accessibility standards for all buildings.

Stewart Stevenson: Accessibility of new buildings and new building work to existing buildings are addressed through Scottish building regulations. These make provision for a range of physical access issues, to ensure that a building can be used and enjoyed by as wide a range of people as practical. For non-domestic buildings, Scottish building regulations are the equivalent of those elsewhere in the UK and, for domestic buildings, are the most demanding in the UK. The latest accessibility standards came into effect in May 2007.

  A duty to consider the accessibility of a building also exists under equalities legislation, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 & 2005 (DDA), which is reserved to Westminster. This legislation places a duty on service providers and employers to make reasonable adjustments to the way services are delivered, or facilities are provided, to prevent discrimination against persons on the basis of disability. This could include not only alteration of physical barriers to access and use, but also the manner in which a building is managed and operated. The DDA can therefore address certain access issues which lie outwith the scope of building regulations.

Airports

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to address problems experienced recently at Wick Airport owing to staff shortages.

Stewart Stevenson: Staffing levels at Wick Airport are sufficient to meet the airport’s operational needs, principally scheduled flight movements. On 30 and 31 December 2008 there were 90 minutes of planned air traffic closures at the airport due to staff sickness. This had no impact on scheduled flights or general aviation traffic operating at Wick.

  On three days in February there will be minor notified closures to protect statutory air traffic control staff working time limitations. Again, this should have no impact on traffic.

  Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd regularly reviews staffing levels at all of its airports to ensure that they are appropriate for its operational needs.

Alcohol Misuse

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people under the age of (a) 14, (b) 16 and (c) 18 were treated for alcohol-related health problems in each of the last 12 months, broken down by NHS board.

Shona Robison: Information on the number of patients aged under 14, 16 and 18 years discharged with an alcohol related diagnosis in 2006-07 by NHS board of treatment and month of discharge is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47367).

Animal Welfare

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-478 by Richard Lochhead on 12 June 2007, what its timetable is for any consultation on draft licensing of animal sanctuaries legislation.

Richard Lochhead: It is anticipated that a consultation paper on proposals to require animal sanctuaries to be licensed will be issued before the summer recess.

Animal Welfare

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-478 by Richard Lochhead on 12 June 2007, what its timetable is for any consultation on draft licensing of livery yards legislation.

Richard Lochhead: It is anticipated that a consultation paper on proposals to require livery yards to be licensed will be issued in the autumn.

Animal Welfare

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17557 by Richard Lochhead on 14 November 2008, what its timetable is for consultation on the replacement of the Pet Animals Act 1951.

Richard Lochhead: We anticipate that we shall issue a consultation paper on proposals for regulations to replace the Pet Animals Act 1951 towards the end of the year.

Animal Welfare

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to review the regulations covering castration and tail docking of lambs following the Report on the Implications of Castration and Tail Docking for the Welfare of Lambs published by the Farm Animal Welfare Council in June 2008.

Richard Lochhead: The government is presently consulting with stakeholders on the recommendations made by the Farm Animal Welfare Council in their report on the castration and tail docking of lambs in consultation with stakeholders. The report does not recommend a ban on these procedures and acknowledges that there are circumstances when there are animal welfare advantages to these procedures being undertaken.

  The government’s response will be published in due course.

Birds

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take subsequent to any tendering exercise to secure the services of a person or persons to capture and translocate sparrowhawks.

Michael Russell: The services of a person to capture and translocate sparrowhawks have been secured following a tendering exercise .  I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19096 on 15 January 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Central Heating

Alasdair Allan (Western Isles) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much fuel it takes to heat a typical semi-detached house with (a) gas central heating and (b) non-white meter electric heating in (i) Braemar, (ii) Stornoway, (iii) Aberdeen, (iv) Edinburgh, (v) Dundee and (vi) Glasgow and what information it has on how this compares with the amount that it takes to heat a similar house in Bristol, using data contained in the climatic severity index.

Stewart Maxwell: The fuel used (in kilowatt hours) to heat a "typical" semi-detached house with gas central heating and with non-white meter electric heating in those locations is shown in table 1:

  Table 1: The Fuel Used (Kwh) Across Scotland to Heat a Semi-Detached House with Gas Central Heating and Non-White Meter Electric Heating and how this Compares to Bristol

  

 Location
 Postcode
 Gas Central Heating
 Electric Room Heaters
 Gas Central Heating
 Electric Room Heaters


 Energy (Kwh)
 % more than Bristol


 Braemar
 AB35 5YL
 16,100
 9,800
 65.2
 66.8


 Stornoway
 HS1 2RN
 15,800
 9,500
 61.8
 62.1


 Aberdeen
 AB11 5QP
 15,300
 9,200
 56.4
 57.3


 Edinburgh
 EH15 1LF
 12,100
 7,300
 23.9
 24.2


 Dundee
 DD2 4PF
 12,600
 7,600
 29.3
 29.9


 Glasgow
 G3 6HB
 11,700
 7,000
 19.7
 19.9


 Bristol
 BS8 1HP
 9,800
 5,900
 -
 -



  Source: Scottish House Condition Survey.

  These estimates are based on National Home Energy ratings (NHER) calculation methods. They do not use the Climatic Severity Index as this is not currently produced by the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS). However the NHER method takes into account Degree Day Region, Average Wind Speed and Elevation.

  As this information is taken from a sample survey the estimates are subject to a degree of uncertainty.

Central Heating

Alasdair Allan (Western Isles) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the estimated percentage of the extra fuel required to heat houses in (a) Edinburgh, (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Dundee, (e) Stornoway and (f) Braemar compared with identical houses in Bristol.

Stewart Maxwell: The estimated percentage of extra fuel, compared to Bristol, used to heat a "typical" semi-detached and detached house with gas central heating and with non-white meter electric heating in those locations is shown in table 1:

  Table 1: The % of Extra Fuel Used Across Scotland to Heat a Semi-Detached and Detached House with Gas Central Heating and Non-White Meter Electric Heating, Compared to Bristol

  

 Location
 Postcode
 Semi-Detached House
 Detached House


 % Higher than Bristol


 Gas
 
 


 Braemar
 AB35 5YL
 65
 65


 Stornoway
 HS1 2RN
 62
 53


 Aberdeen
 AB11 5QP
 56
 51


 Edinburgh
 EH15 1LF
 24
 22


 Dundee
 DD2 4PF
 29
 28


 Glasgow
 G3 6HB
 20
 19


 Electricity
 
 


 Braemar
 AB35 5YL
 67
 67


 Stornoway
 HS1 2RN
 62
 54


 Aberdeen
 AB11 5QP
 57
 52


 Edinburgh
 EH15 1LF
 24
 23


 Dundee
 DD2 4PF
 30
 28


 Glasgow
 G3 6HB
 20
 20



  These estimates are based on National Home Energy ratings (NHER) calculation methods.

  This information is sourced from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS). As the SHCS is a sample survey the estimates are subject to a degree of uncertainty.

Child Welfare

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are directions from the Lord Advocate on the prosecution of child-care staff.

Frank Mulholland QC: Guidance is available for Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service staff in relation to the prosecution of teaching staff as well as cases more generally where criminal offences are committed by those in a position of trust and cases where persons claim to have carried out physical punishment of children in the exercise of a parental right or of a right derived from having charge or care of a child. General guidance on the criteria for decision making and the range of options available to prosecutors dealing with reports is published in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Prosecution Code.

Communities

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to assist local community organisations affected by cuts in Fairer Scotland Fund grants.

Stewart Maxwell: The Fairer Scotland Fund (FSF) assists community planning partnerships (CPPs) in tackling issues related to poverty and disadvantage in the most locally appropriate way. Investment of the FSF is a matter for each CPP. It is for local partners to decide which activities will be the most effective in supporting the achievement of prioritised outcomes and to manage relationships with organisations seeking FSF resources.

Community Justice

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19208 by John Swinney on 9 January 2009, how, in each case, it intends to evaluate the effectiveness of the £1 million additional funding allocated to ensure that (a) offenders start their community service orders more quickly and (b) orders are completed in a shorter timescale and what specific criteria it will use.

Kenny MacAskill: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19200 on 15 January 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Community Justice

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19208 by John Swinney on 9 January 2009, what specific activities or resources it expects community justice authorities to spend the £1 million additional funding on and how, in each case, this will help to ensure that (a) offenders start their community service orders more quickly and (b) orders are completed in a shorter timescale.

Kenny MacAskill: It is anticipated that local authorities will use the bulk of the additional £1 million being made available to employ additional community service staff. Local authorities are responsible for the operational delivery of community service orders and how best to deploy available resources to achieve the desired improvements to timescales for the start and completion of orders.

Concessionary Travel

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the steering group set up to review the national concessionary travel scheme has considered extending access to the scheme to individuals in receipt of a War Disablement Pension.

Stewart Stevenson: John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, announced on 4 July 2008 that he wanted to ensure that the eligibility criteria of the Scotland-wide Free Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People is extended so that injured veterans in Scotland are able to benefit from free bus travel. Consideration of the detail of this is being included as part of the review of the scheme, which is currently being completed.

Concessionary Travel

John Lamont (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost would be of extending the national concessionary fares scheme to include all demand-responsive community transport.

Stewart Stevenson: There is no Scottish Government estimate of the cost of including demand responsive community transport in the Scotland-Wide Free Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People. Demand responsive transport that is a locally registered service can be included in the scheme.

Culture

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what contribution it will make to the purchase of the Titian painting from the Duke of Sutherland and from which budget.

Linda Fabiani: The Scottish Government will make an announcement about its funding contribution towards the purchase of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon , and the consequent continued public access to the world-renowned Bridgewater Collection, once the arrangements for the purchase have been finalised between the National Galleries and the Duke of Sutherland.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dogs have been reported to the police as being dangerously out-of-control in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: The following table shows the number of offences recorded by the police in Scotland in relation to the control and supervision of dogs for each of the last five years.

  Offences Recorded by the Police in Scotland in Relation to the Control and Supervision of Dogs, 2003-04 to 2007-08

  

 
 2003-04
 2004-05
 2005-06
 2006-07
 2007-08


 Dangerous Dogs, Failure to Control, Supervise or destroy
 403
 529
 531
 532
 557


 Keeping dogs under proper control or contravention of an order 
 433
 618
 517
 623
 587


 Total
 836
 1,147
 1,048
 1,155
 1,144



  Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dog-bite incidents have been (a) reported to the police and (b) treated at hospital in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: The information requested in part (a) concerning the number of dog-bite incidents reported to the police is not held centrally.

  With regards to the information asked for in part (b) in relation to the number of dog-bite incidents treated at hospital in each of the last five years, the reason for attendance at accident and emergency departments is not centrally available.

  For patients admitted into secondary care following an injury, the cause of injury is recorded. The following table shows the number of these cases where the cause of injury is recorded as "bitten or struck by dog" for the past five years where data is available.

  Number of Hospital Admissions as a Result of Being Bitten or Struck by Dog, for Financial Year of Discharge, 2003-04 to 2007-08

  

 
 2003-04
 2004-05
 2005-06
 2006-07
 2007-08


 Number of Admissions
 310
 309
 345
 386
 363



  Source: Information Services Division, NHS National Services Scotland.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many claims for compensation resulting from dog-bite incidents were (a) made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and (b) upheld in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: The number of claims made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for compensation for injuries caused by dog bites in the last five years is as follows:

  

 Financial Year
Number of Cases Received
Number of Cases where Compensation Paid


 2003-04
 366
 89


 2004-05
 366
 71


 2005-06
 333
 76


 2006-07
 381
 76


 2007-08
 407
 86



  Source: Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average amount of compensation awarded in claims made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for dog bites was in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: The average amount of compensation awarded in claims made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for dog bites in each of the last five years was as follows:

  

Financial Year
Average Amount Paid (£)


 2003-04
 2,816


 2004-05
 2,399


 2005-06
 2,282


 2006-07
 2,768


 2007-08
 2,759



  Source: Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many court orders requiring that a dog be kept under proper control have been made under section 2 of the Dogs Act 1871 and what the level of compliance has been in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: The information requested is not held centrally.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dogs have been destroyed under the (a) Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and (b) Dogs Act 1871 in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: Data on the number of dogs destroyed is not held centrally. The number of convictions under these Acts, for the last five years for which data is available, is given in the following table.

  Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and Dogs Act 1871, 2002-03 to 2006-07

  

 
 2002-03
 2003-04
 2004-05
 2005-06
 2006-07


 Dangerous Dogs Act 19911
 37
 48
 52
 52
 50


 Dogs Act 18711
 24
 40
 63
 57
 64


 Total
 61
 88
 115
 109
 114



  Note: 1. Where main offence.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dogs have been seized by the police in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: Information in relation to the number of dogs seized by the police is not held centrally.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dogs have been impounded by dog wardens in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: This information is not held centrally. Dog wardens are the responsibility of local authorities.

Dangerous Dogs

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dog wardens are currently in the employment of local authorities, broken down by area.

Kenny MacAskill: This information is not held centrally.

Dentistry

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons were for a £5 million underspend on the Dental Action Plan, as outlined in the Audit Scotland report Financial overview of the NHS in Scotland 2007-08.

Nicola Sturgeon: Audit Scotland’s Financial overview of the NHS in Scotland 2007-08 identified a £5 million underspend by NHS Education for Scotland in their Dental Action Plan allocation.

  NHS Education for Scotland were allocated funds under the Dental Action Plan to support five major work streams with 14 distinct projects. Part of the funding was to meet the revenue costs of the educational aspects of new teach and treat centres across Scotland. NHS Education for Scotland has had to commit revenue in support of each NHS board’s business case in respect of these developments. Each major centre’s revenue costs are in the region of £500,000 and NHS Education for Scotland has had to hold this money against future revenue commitments. However, the centres have taken longer to complete than anticipated and this has therefore resulted in a revenue underspend for NHS Education for Scotland.

  NHS Education for Scotland protects its Dental Action Plan funding and the underspend in revenue is normally carried forward into the next year for future commitment within NHS Education for Scotland. This resulted in a large underpend being accumulated. Therefore in the interest of proper use of public funds, complete transparency and achieving best value for dental services across Scotland, as a one off exercise, the funds which were not required in 2007-08 were returned by NHS Education for Scotland to the Scottish Government.

Digital Technology

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all of those who registered for the Broadband Reach Project have been contacted by Avanti Caledonian Broadband Ltd with broadband package options.

Jim Mather: All eligible households and businesses who registered by the end May 2008 for the Broadband Reach Project have been contacted at least once by Avanti with broadband package options. In addition, all late registrations that we have been able to accept into the project, to the end of November 2008, have also been contacted by Avanti at least once.

Digital Technology

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many of those who registered for the Broadband Reach Project have placed an order with Avanti Caledonian Broadband Ltd in the (a) Highlands and Islands and (b) rest of Scotland.

Jim Mather: As of 11 January 2008, 1,605 orders from those who registered for the Broadband Reach Project have been received by Avanti, comprising 842 from the Highlands and Islands and 763 from the rest of Scotland.

Digital Technology

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many premises in the (a) Highlands and Islands and (b) rest of Scotland have been activated to receive a broadband service through the Broadband Reach Project.

Jim Mather: As of 11 January 2008, 692 installations have taken place under the Broadband Reach Project, comprising 370 in the Highlands and Islands and 322 in the rest of Scotland.

Digital Technology

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there have been or will be instances of those who have placed an order with Avanti Caledonian Broadband Ltd under the Broadband Reach Project being unable to receive a broadband service.

Jim Mather: It is the intention of the Scottish Government and of Avanti that there will be no instances where valid orders are placed that service will not be provided.

Digital Technology

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is able to guarantee that broadband services will be provided by the target date of May 2009 to 100% of those who have placed an order for it as part of its Broadband Reach Project.

Jim Mather: It is the intention of the Scottish Government and of Avanti that all valid orders will be provisioned by the end of May 2009.

Disabled People

Stuart McMillan (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been made available to support networks that offer specialist advice provision for disabled people.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government takes the provision of advice to disabled people very seriously, across all its areas of responsibility. Funding is provided to a wide range of organisations that provide such advice. We would highlight the following:

  Health:

  Self-Directed Support -

  In 2008-09, through section 10 (1) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, the self-directed support team made grants of £210,000 available to organisations who advise people about self-directed support.

  Mental Health:

  Section 10 Organisations and payments 2008-09 -

  Alzheimer Scotland - £100,000

  Bipolar Fellowship - £27,825

  Dementia Services Development Centre - £135,000

  Headway - £72,500

  National Schizophrenia Scotland - £74,620

  Penumbra - £61,880

  Penumbra Respite - £20,850

  Richmond Fellowship - £31,500

  Scottish Huntington’s Association - £52,000

  Scottish Association for Mental Health - £88,000

  Stresswatch - £11,219.

  In addition, through section 16B of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, the Scottish Government provides grants totalling £377,000 to a range of voluntary organisations which support people experiencing mental illness. The organisations that receive funding undertake various functions that include giving help and advice to members of the public who experience mental ill health and their carers. Examples of high profile organisations that receive money in this way are Alzheimer’s Scotland, Cruse Bereavement Care (Scotland), Depression Alliance Scotland and the Scottish Association for Mental Health.

  Housing and Adaptations:

  Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living provides a range of independent living advice, information and training support services to disabled people in and around Glasgow, and has been funded through the Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme to develop a disabled housing register. They received £23,600 in 2008-09 and will receive £24,072 in 2009-10.

  Education:

  Support for Learning -

  The Scottish Government fund the Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC) to promote innovation and good practice in the education of deaf, visually impaired and deafblind pupils. The Scottish Government also funds CALL Scotland, who provide specialist expertise in technology for children who have speech, communication and/or writing difficulties, in schools across Scotland. Both services are housed in the University of Edinburgh. In 2008-09, SSC were awarded £219,861 and CALL £317,760.

  The Scottish Government also provided in 2008-09, £424,260 funding for the provision of Enquire, the national organisation with links to local networks. Enquire provides free and independent information and advice to families of children with additional support needs.

  Disabled Children:

  The Butterfly Trust - 2008-09, £64,575

  Care Co-ordination Network UK - 2008-09, £47,281

  Contact a Family - 2008-09, £64,062

  Sleep Scotland - 2008-09, £75,030.

  Lifelong Learning:

  The Lifelong Learning Directorate (LLD) within the Scottish Government have for a number of years funded Skill Scotland to update the advice contained within Helping You Meet The Cost of Learning for 2008-09 - Disabled Learners. The LLD have also previously funded Skill Scotland to write the advice contained within a publication called the Employing Own Support Workers in Higher Education.

  SKILL Scotland also receives a Headquarters Grant which is administered via the Lifelong Learning Directorate. The grant for 2008-9 was £52,871.

  Skill Scotland is a national charity promoting opportunities for young people and adults with any kind of impairment in post-16 education, training and employment. Skill Scotland operates an information and advice service, provides volunteering opportunities, informs and influences key decision makers, runs conferences and works with its members.

Disabled People

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive in what form the performance of the provision of respite for disabled people will be reported in light of the ending of ring fencing.

Shona Robison: Local authority funding for respite services for all care groups was not previously ring-fenced. Funding for respite and carer support services was included within the annual local government finance settlement and paid as part of the general block grant. That remains the case.

  In recognition of the importance of respite and short breaks in supporting both carers and those they are caring for, the Scottish Government included a commitment in our concordat with local government to make progress towards an additional 10,000 respite weeks a year. We have provided an extra £4 million - on top of the total settlement to local government - to enable local authorities to deliver this commitment in full by 2011. These additional weeks should benefit a wide range of carers and those they are caring for, including disabled people.

  It will be at the discretion of individual local authorities how they develop and allocate these additional weeks, based on local needs and priorities. We have agreed with COSLA that they will monitor the delivery of the commitment and will report to the Scottish Government with total Scotland-wide figures.

Disabled People

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the first meeting of the reference group on independent living will be held.

Stewart Maxwell: The first meeting of the reference group on independent living will be held on 6 February 2009.

Disabled People

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to produce a self-directed support strategy.

Nicola Sturgeon: A roundtable on self-directed support was convened in June 2008 to consider a strategy to increase the uptake of self-directed support, as a result of which an on-going reference group has been established. Members subsequently discussed a draft strategy at the October meeting which is being finalised and will be presented to members at their next meeting on 5 March 2009.

Disabled People

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which three test sites have been chosen for consideration of how to improve the uptake of self-directed support.

Nicola Sturgeon: Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Highland Councils have been selected as the three test sites. NHS Lothian and Borders Council will also be contributing to the development of the policy through other local initiatives.

Disabled People

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the reference group on self-directed support last met.

Nicola Sturgeon: The reference group on self-directed support last met on Thursday 30 October 2008.

Disabled People

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the next meeting of the reference group on self-directed support will take place.

Nicola Sturgeon: The next meeting of the reference group on self-directed support will take place on Thursday 5 March 2009.

Disabled People

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it measures unmet need for home adaptations for disabled people and, if so, what the level of unmet need is, expressed in terms of the number of disabled people and financial cost.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government does not measure unmet need. It is for individual local authorities to identify and meet the eligible needs of people in their area within a reasonable timescale according to relevant welfare and housing legislation and guidance and to monitor their own performance.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of a report in the Press and Journal on 7 January 2009, what assessment it makes of the AA’s call for the vehicles of repeat drink-drivers to be confiscated.

Kenny MacAskill: In cases where a road traffic offence punishable by imprisonment has been committed, Section 33A of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 provides the courts with the power to make an order for the forfeiture of a vehicle following an application from the prosecutor. The range of penalties for drink driving offences includes imprisonment.

  The decision to apply for the forfeiture of a vehicle is a matter for the prosecutor. Sentencing decisions are a matter for the judge, who hears all the facts and circumstances surrounding the offence and the offender, and is able to take into account any factors which he or she considers to be relevant.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of drink and drug-drivers caught by police represents repeat offenders.

Kenny MacAskill: Information on whether drink and drug drivers are repeat offenders is not held centrally.

Education

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many school pupils received clothing grants in 2007-08 and what the average level of grant was, broken down by local authority area.

Maureen Watt: This information is not collected centrally.

Fertility Treatment

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether infertility treatment will be included in the 18-week waiting time initiative.

Nicola Sturgeon: Access to infertility services has not historically been included in waiting time targets because there were concerns about breaching patient confidentiality. We have collected data from NHS boards which shows that waiting times for this service vary significantly across the country, and we are currently considering options to address this. We are aware that individual boards have invested in this service to reduce waiting times in their areas.

Fertility Treatment

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many cycles of IVF and ICSI per person can be provided by each NHS board.

Shona Robison: The government published Expert Advisory Group on Infertility Services in 2000 to inform NHS boards planning and provision of infertility services. These guidelines, which remain extant, recommend that those who are eligible for NHS funded IVF treatment should be offered three cycles.

Finance

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it made in advance of the publication of its 2009-10 budget bill of how many new private sector jobs would be created as a result of its measures.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government Recovery Programme sets out how the government is using this year’s Budget Bill to support jobs and investment in Scotland in response to the economic downturn. In light of the decisions taken, and in particular the acceleration of capital expenditure, it is estimated that this action will support approximately 4,700 jobs across Scotland.

Finance

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what comparative assessment it made of the impact on the Irish economy of the Irish Government’s most recent budget in order to inform the Scottish Government’s budgetary process.

John Swinney: In preparing our draft budget for 2009-10, responding to the UK Chancellor's pre-budget report, and introducing the Budget Bill, the Scottish Government has taken into account a range of factors including the experience of other countries, such as Ireland. However, as an independent nation, many of the measures which the Irish Government can deploy are not currently available to the Scottish Government under the current devolution settlement.

Finance

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what comparative assessment it made of the impact on the Norwegian economy of the Norwegian Government’s most recent budget in order to inform the Scottish Government’s budgetary process.

John Swinney: In preparing our draft budget for 2009-10, responding to the UK Chancellor's pre-budget report, and introducing the Budget Bill, the Scottish Government has taken into account a range of factors including the experience of other countries, such as Norway. However, as an independent nation, many of the measures which the Norwegian Government can deploy are not currently available to the Scottish Government under the current devolution settlement.

  Moreover, Norway has benefited from saving the surpluses from its North Sea production in an oil fund: a massive resource for future generations that leaves it in a very strong fiscal position and able to respond to the economic downturn. Scotland, of course, has no such fund.

Food Safety

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the importance of analytical facilities to the monitoring of the safety and standards of the public’s food, water and other consumer products.

Shona Robison: We consider analytical facilities to be an important component in the monitoring of the safety and standards of the public’s food, water and other consumer products. Public analysts are a statutory requirement under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 and adequate provision of these services enables local authorities to protect public health and to carry out their statutory responsibilities across a wide range of activities.

  There is also recognition by the European Union of the role of such facilities. As central competent authority for food safety and standards, the Food Standards Agency has a UK-wide responsibility under European legislation (Regulation 882/2004 on Official Food and Feed controls) to ensure that there is adequate laboratory capacity for the testing of food; a sufficient number of suitably qualified and experienced staff; and appropriate facilities and equipment to undertake official controls.

Food Safety

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the UK Government and the Food Standards Agency regarding public analyst laboratories in Scotland.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has had no discussions with the UK Government or Food Standards Agency on this subject.

  However, the Food Standards Agency Scotland has been contributing to on-going discussions with the Association of Public Analysts and other relevant stakeholders on the development of a long term strategy to ensure there is adequate provision of the necessary analytical services for the monitoring of food safety and standards across the UK.

Food Safety

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to maintain an adequate public analyst service.

Shona Robison: It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to appoint public analysts for the purposes of ensuring food safety, and to take any necessary action in pursuit of that duty.

  In addition, as part of the Food Standard Agency Scotland’s overview of local authority food enforcement and their audit of these services, the agency ensure that each local authority has appointed a laboratory that operates, and is assessed and accredited in accordance with, the European standards specified in Regulation (EC) No 882/2004, and which meets the requirements of the Food Safety Act 1990.

Food Safety

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Aberdeen City Council regarding the future of its Public Analyst Laboratory.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has had no discussions on this matter with Aberdeen City Council. However, the Food Standards Agency Scotland has been kept informed of proposals relating to the future of Aberdeen City Council’s Public Analyst Laboratory, given the agency’s interest in ensuring the provision of adequate analytical services for food testing across Scotland. The Aberdeen laboratory will be considered in wider discussions on how the agency ensures these services are maintained across Scotland.

Food Safety

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is giving to local authorities to halt the decline in analytical services.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding. The vast majority of funding, including funding for a public analyst service, is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives and manifesto commitments.

  The latest settlement gave local authorities 5% additional funding for environmental health.

Food Safety

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many public analyst laboratories there have been in each year since 1995.

Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally. However, we understand there are currently four public analyst laboratories: in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Food Safety

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many public analysts have been employed in each year since 1995.

Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally.

Government Notices

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to amend the legislation that requires local and national government to publish government notices in local and national newspapers.

John Swinney: Local Government supported by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities are developing a portal to advertise Public Information Notices online. The pilot authorities are City of Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow City, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire. The project also includes a review of current legislation relating to statutory notice requirements which should be completed by February 2009. Public Information Notices frequently have a statutory basis and the law of these could not be changed without parliamentary procedure. There will be consultation on the proposals and regulations will be drawn up which, if made, form the legal basis to allow certain notices to be published electronically. These regulations have to be laid in Parliament and will be subject to parliamentary procedure including scrutiny by parliamentary committees.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider a pilot study of the self-referral of patients for physiotherapy services with a view to reducing the recurrence of pain and time off work.

Nicola Sturgeon: Self referral of patients for physiotherapy services was piloted in Scotland between 2003 and 2005. Patients across Scotland can now self-refer into physiotherapy services. The Scottish Government is also funding the Working Health Services pilot in Dundee. Employees of small and medium-sized enterprises can self-refer for assessment and treatment through services such as physiotherapy, assisting recovery and minimising time off work.

  Similar services are being setup in NHS Borders and NHS Lothian.

Health

Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance has been issued to NHS boards on undertaking risk assessments of inpatients developing deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19378 on 15 January 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Health

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration has been given to the implications of a move towards single embryo transfer.

Shona Robison: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the fertility regulatory body, has asked clinics to reduce general multiple pregnancy rates from an average of 24% to 10% over the next three years. We would expect that clinicians providing infertility treatment would discuss with their patients the option of elective single embryo transfer, including whether they are suitable for this treatment, versus the potential risks of multiple pregnancies with two or more embryos.

Homecoming Scotland

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of additional greenhouse gas emissions it expects will be generated by aviation resulting from Homecoming Scotland 2009.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government considers that good air links support Scotland’s economy, including the tourism industry. The government has introduced the Scottish Climate Change Bill which sets a target of an 80% cut in Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The target applies collectively across all sectors of the economy, including international aviation. Although the government is not in a position to assess the level of greenhouse gas emissions that will be generated by aviation resulting from Homecoming 2009 it is expected that the Homecoming Year may make flights to and from Scotland more fuel-efficient by filling empty seats.

Homecoming Scotland

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive how it has assessed the level of greenhouse gas emissions expected to be generated by aviation resulting from Homecoming Scotland 2009.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government considers that good air links support Scotland’s economy, including the tourism industry. The government has introduced the Scottish Climate Change Bill which sets a target of an 80% cut in Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The target applies collectively across all sectors of the economy, including international aviation. Although the government is not in a position to assess the level of greenhouse gas emissions that will be generated by aviation resulting from Homecoming 2009 it is expected that the Homecoming Year may make flights to and from Scotland more fuel-efficient by filling empty seats.

Homecoming Scotland

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the promotional work for Homecoming Scotland 2009 will focus on domestic and European tourism rather than on increasing the number of visitors who rely on international aviation.

Jim Mather: VisitScotland’s promotional work for Homecoming Scotland 2009 is focussed on increasing overall tourism revenue from domestic and international tourism, rather than on straightforward visitor numbers. They will seek to measure the net positive difference which results from the intervention of EventScotland and VisitScotland in their marketing of Homecoming 2009.

  VisitScotland’s European campaigns prioritise Homecoming Scotland, picking up on the culture, whisky and golf themes. VisitScotland has secured prominent positions for Homecoming Scotland throughout VisitBritain’s web platforms and e-communications and PR programmes – this further extends the reach and impact of Homecoming.

  The Homecoming Scotland TV advert has been seen by over 60 per cent of the Scottish population in the week over St Andrews Day 2008. Tailored information on Homecoming has been mentioned in mailshots to 260,000 UK consumers through the Visitscotland relationship marketing programme last summer.

  Three hundred and fifty thousand UK consumers have received information about how to get involved and celebrate Burns through the World Famous Burns Supper campaign in November. 1.9 million UK consumers will have seen Homecoming press adverts in key magazines last autumn including Coast Magazine, Good Housekeeping and Guardian Weekend. Half a million London consumers have seen 25 large outdoor posters around the main arterial routes in London and digital advertising in over 30 underground stations last autumn.

Homecoming Scotland

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what efforts will be made to maximise the use of surface-based transport modes rather than aviation by domestic and European tourists coming to Homecoming Scotland 2009.

Jim Mather: Visitors to Scotland for Homecoming 2009 will use many different forms of transport to get here. Once in Scotland, VisitScotland encourages visitors to cherish the Scottish environment, and raises awareness of tourism impacts and what can be done to reduce these impacts.

  Their activity to promote the use of public transport, which will continue throughout the Homecoming year includes:

  Providing excellent, highly visible information for visitors on how to access and travel around Scotland by public transport, cycling and walking through the VisitScotland.com website.

  Promoting the advance booking service offered by rail companies and integrated ticketing opportunities.

  Providing sustainable itineraries for tourists.

Housing

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the £25 million funding package for council housing, whether it will list the councils that have made applications for funding, also showing for each the number of houses applied for and the average level of subsidy per house.

Stewart Maxwell: The information requested is shown in the following table.

  

 Council
Number of Houses Applied For
Subsidy Per House Requested


 Aberdeen City
 92
£25,000


 Aberdeenshire
 34
£25,000


 Angus
 2
£24,900


 City of Edinburgh
 398
£25,000


 Dundee City
 32
£22,000


 East Ayrshire
 50
£25,000


 East Lothian
 135
£25,000


 Falkirk
 124
£25,000


 Fife
 95
£25,000


 Midlothian
 495
£25,000


 Moray
 80
£25,000


 North Ayrshire
 23
£23,000


 North Lanarkshire
 185
£25,000


 Orkney
 50
£10,000


 Perth and Kinross
 26
£25,000


 Shetland Islands
 10
£25,000


 South Lanarkshire
 120
£25,000


 Stirling
 83
£25,000


 West Lothian
 700
£25,000



  Source: Information provided by councils as part of their applications for a share of the £25 million to encourage council house building.

Housing

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13606 by Stewart Maxwell on 30 May 2008, whether the provisional housing allocation of £3.922 million for Aberdeen in 2008-09 has changed.

Stewart Maxwell: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13606 on 30 May 2008. I can confirm that the Affordable Housing Investment Programme allocation for Aberdeen City in 2008-09 is still £3.922 million.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Housing

Bashir Ahmad (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the availability of affordable housing.

Stewart Maxwell: Over the current Spending Review period we are providing over £1.5 billion for affordable housing across Scotland, 19% more than planned for under the previous administration.

  Following the Budget Bill the government now plans to accelerate £120 million of investment in new supply, £40 million for 2008-09 and £80 million for 2009-10.

Housing

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive in what form the performance of private landlord registration will be reported in light of the ending of ring fencing.

Stewart Maxwell: The performance of landlord registration is monitored monthly using statistics which show how many applications for registration have been received and how many have been approved, broken down by local authority area. Removal of the ring-fenced funds has had no bearing on the performance information that is collected.

Housing

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-16514 by Stewart Maxwell on 6 October 2008, whether it has released or will release further funding to housing associations in this financial year.

Stewart Maxwell: We have provided £9.5 million of funding to date to housing associations in 2008-09 for medical adaptations. Total spend in 2008-09 for medical adaptations will be available during April 2009.

Housing

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms exist to ensure that disabled people needing urgent adaptations to their homes do not have to wait for more than six months.

Stewart Maxwell: It is for individual local authorities to identify and meet the eligible needs of people in their area within a reasonable timescale according to relevant welfare and housing legislation and guidance. If individual clients are unhappy about the timescale or any other aspect of the delivery of services or equipment, they can raise this through the local authority’s complaints procedures.

Housing (Scotland) Act 2006

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its strategy for improving home energy efficiency as required under section 179 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.

Stewart Maxwell: The requirement for Scottish ministers to prepare a strategy for improving the energy efficiency of living accommodation, as required under section 179 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, will now be taken forward as part of the proposals for an energy efficiency action plan in the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill.

  The proposals in the bill will strengthen the existing statutory duty in the 2006 act in terms of reporting and publishing. This will ensure a consistent approach to tackling energy efficiency across all sectors, and will allow for better alignment of reporting on implementation and carbon savings, which can then be accounted against the overall target of this bill.

  We will publish an outline of the action plan in the spring and will publish the final plan when the bill becomes an act.

Justice

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18738 by Kenny MacAskill on 16 December 2008 and his announcement on 24 October 2008 of £1 million additional funding to deliver speedier community penalties, how it will monitor the effectiveness of the additional funding given that information is not held centrally on the average length of time following sentencing before commencement of sentences.

Kenny MacAskill: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19200 on 15 January 2009. We intend to carry out an early audit of current practice and a further audit 12 months later. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Justice

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, following the announcement on 24 October 2008 by Kenny MacAskill MSP of £1 million additional funding to deliver speedier community penalties, when it anticipates that the period of time between sentencing and the start of a community service will begin to decrease.

Kenny MacAskill: We will shortly be issuing revised guidance for implementation from April 2009 for operation of community service schemes. It has been agreed with the Association of Directors of Social Work that the overall aim should be for the work placement to start within 7 days of the order being made by the court. Whilst this will inevitably take time to achieve it should lead to significant improvements over current levels of performance.

  The planned audits of community service referred to in the reply to S3W-19200 answered on 15 January 2009 should provide an indication of the improvements achieved over the next financial year.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Justice

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals have been made against fixed penalties issued for dog fouling in each of the last five years.

Kenny MacAskill: This information is not held centrally but with the individual local authorities.

Justice

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will implement the legislative changes recommended at paragraph 2.3 of the Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner to the Prime Minister and to Scottish Ministers for 2007-2008 and, if so, when.

Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Government is including provision within the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill to address the Chief Surveillance Officer’s recommendations.

Justice

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what work it is undertaking to reduce the number of fine defaulters that serve prison sentences.

Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Government have taken forward significant measures to tackle fine default. We are implementing summary justice reform which has brought improvements to the system and changes in the law under the Criminal Proceedings Reform Act. Fines enforcement officers were introduced under that Act.

  The Scottish Court Service is implementing a project to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of recovery of fines and financial penalties.

  Fines enforcement officers, currently 30 in number, are active in dealing with penalties payable to Sheriff Courts across Scotland and to Justice of the Peace Courts in those Sheriffdoms where the unification of the administration of the courts is in place. Fines enforcement officers are employed to advise those who have genuine difficulty in paying and to apply enforcement measures such as deduction from benefit where they refuse to pay.

  To reduce the use of custody in cases of low level fine default the Scottish Government also commenced provisions from 1 September 2007 requiring the mandatory use by courts of supervised attendance orders for fine default of £500, where a custodial sentence would otherwise have been imposed.

Local Government Expenditure

Ted Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has spent on recruitment advertising in national newspapers in each year since 1999.

John Swinney: There is no regular publication or survey of advertising costs of each council carried out by the Scottish Government. A partial voluntary survey was carried out in 2006 in order to provide an approximate Scotland-level estimate of advertising costs. Data at council level are incomplete. The business case for a Local Government Recruitment and Public Information Portal developed by the Improvement Service and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities was based on a potential 40 per cent saving against a national total figure of 13.5 million. This national figure was based on the indicative figures from the survey.

Local Government Expenditure

Ted Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has spent on advertising public and statutory notices in national newspapers in each year since 1999.

John Swinney: There is no regular publication or survey of advertising costs of each Council carried out by the Scottish Government. A partial voluntary survey was carried out in 2006 in order to provide an approximate Scotland-level estimate of advertising costs. Data at council level are incomplete. The business case for a Local Government Recruitment and Public Information Portal developed by the Improvement Service and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities was based on a potential 40 per cent saving against a national total figure of 13.5 million. This national figure was based on the indicative figures from the survey.

Local Government Expenditure

Ted Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has spent on recruitment advertising in local newspapers in each year since 1999.

John Swinney: There is no regular publication or survey of advertising costs of each council carried out by the Scottish Government. A partial voluntary survey was carried out in 2006 in order to provide an approximate Scotland-level estimate of advertising costs. Data at council level are incomplete. The business case for a Local Government Recruitment and Public Information Portal developed by the Improvement Service and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities was based on a potential 40 per cent saving against a national total figure of 13.5 million. This national figure was based on the indicative figures from the survey.

Local Government Expenditure

Ted Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has spent on advertising public and statutory notices in local newspapers in each year since 1999.

John Swinney: There is no regular publication or survey of advertising costs of each council carried out by the Scottish Government. A partial voluntary survey was carried out in 2006 in order to provide an approximate Scotland-level estimate of advertising costs. Data at council level are incomplete. The business case for a Local Government Recruitment and Public Information Portal developed by the Improvement Service and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities was based on a potential 40 per cent saving against a national total figure of 13.5 million. This national figure was based on the indicative figures from the survey.

Mental Health

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that there is effective support in the community for offenders with severe and enduring mental illness on release and how it will monitor effectiveness.

Shona Robison: Discharge planning for prisoners with a diagnosis of severe and enduring mental illness will be undertaken in a multi-disciplinary way using the Care Programme Approach (CPA). CPA focuses on the care and treatment likely to minimise the risk posed. CPA will be initiated shortly before liberation by the prison’s healthcare staff resulting in an additional case conference that focuses specifically on addressing clinical need.

  NHS boards are accountable for the quality of care and treatment they provide and for ensuring effective clinical governance arrangements are in place. NHS boards discharge these responsibilities by achieving the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Clinical Governance and Risk Management Standards and by the work which they are taking forward on integrated care pathways, which will also be accredited by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. This accountability applies to all patients including those who have been released from prison.

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17745 by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 November 2008, how many appeals against pay banding have been lodged following assimilation under Agenda for Change, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: Under Agenda for Change staff have the right to request a review of their matching or evaluation outcome. As nearly all staff have been placed on the new pay system, boards are now turning their attention to completing reviews as early in 2009 as possible.

  The data collected by the Scottish Government does not detail the number of specific review requests submitted but rather the two key statistics for management purposes:

  1. the number of posts for which review requests have been received (i.e. if three people doing the same job in a given area submit review requests this would only count as a request to review one post) and;

  2. the number of postholders affected by review requests (i.e. following on from the example above, if there are five people in total doing that same job in a given area, then the outcome of the three review requests submitted will affect all five staff).

  A number of review requests have already been processed with boards around the country at different stages in handling. However, the following table details the total number of posts for which review requests have been received and the number of postholders potentially affected by these reviews. The figures are taken at 30 November 2008 and broken down by NHS board.

  

 NHS Board
 Number of Posts for which Review Requests Have Been Received
 Number of Postholders Potentially Affected by the Review Request


 Ayrshire and Arran
 1,096
 2,717


 Borders
 427
 797


 Dumfries and Galloway
 485
 2,728


 Fife
 558
 1,688


 Forth Valley
 447
 1,155


 Golden Jubilee National Hospital
 39
 103


 Grampian
 1,617
 4,083


 Greater Glasgow and Clyde
 3,586
 9,403


 Highland
 804
 2,374


 Lanarkshire
 2,524
 2,524


 Lothian
 2,152
 11,091


 NHS24
 21
 57


 NHS Education for Scotland
 108
 149


 NHS Health
 20
 35


 NHS National Services Scotland
 485
 1,525


 NHS Quality Improvement Scotland
 30
 64


 Orkney
 121
 160


 Scottish Ambulance Service
 94
 3,822


 Shetland
 71
 99


 State Hospital 
 86
 322


 Tayside
 1,132
 5,366


 Western Isles
 38
 42


 Total
 15,941
 50,310

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W–17745 by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 November 2008, how many appeals against pay banding are outstanding following assimilation under Agenda for Change, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: Under Agenda for Change staff have the right to request a review of their matching or evaluation outcome. As nearly all staff have been placed on the new pay system, boards are now turning their attention to completing reviews as early in 2009 as possible.

  The data collected by the Scottish Government does not detail the number of specific review requests submitted but rather the two key statistics for management purposes:

  1. the number of posts for which review requests have been received (i.e. if three people doing the same job in a given area submit review requests this would only count as a request to review one post), and

  2. the number of postholders affected by review requests (i.e. following on from the example above, if there are five people in total doing that same job in a given area, then the outcome of the three review requests submitted will affect all five staff).

  A number of review requests have already been processed with boards around the country at different stages in handling. Figures are available for the number of postholders affected by the reviews which have already been processed and this therefore allows a figure to be calculated for the number of postholders who are left and are, therefore, potentially affected by the outcome of outstanding review requests. These figures are presented in the following table. The figures are taken at 30 November 2008 and broken down by NHS board.

  Number of Postholders who could be Affected by the Outcome of Outstanding Review Requests

  

 NHS Board
 


 Ayrshire and Arran
 2,167


 Borders
 5


 Dumfries and Galloway
 2,105


 Fife
 1,564


 Forth Valley
 1,022


 Golden Jubilee National Hospital
 55


 Grampian
 140


 Greater Glasgow and Clyde
 9,403


 Highland
 1,683


 Lanarkshire
 1,586


 Lothian
 8,754


 NHS24
 30


 NHS Education for Scotland
 0


 NHS Health
 15


 NHS National Services Scotland
 361


 NHS Quality Improvement Scotland
 7


 Orkney
 0


 Scottish Ambulance Service
 0


 Shetland
 35


 State Hospital 
 322


 Tayside
 4,321


 Western Isles
 20


 Total
 33,601

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17745 by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 November 2008, how many retired NHS staff are awaiting assimilation under Agenda for Change, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: Assimilation is being taken forward in partnership locally and I know that existing staff have generally been prioritised for assimilation over retirees. There will, therefore, be retirees waiting for assimilation in many parts of the country. The Scottish Government does not collect data on the numbers involved but these are likely to be relatively small in the context of the larger process.

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17745 by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 November 2008, how many appeals against pay banding have been lodged by retired NHS staff following assimilation under Agenda for Change, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: The data collected by the Scottish Government does not detail either the number of specific review requests submitted or how many of these are from retired members of staff. Current data collection covers both the number of posts for which review requests have been received and the number of postholders affected by review requests.

  It is possible that the outcome of review requests received from either current or retired staff will affect a number of retired staff around the country. However, it is not possible to identify the numbers involved from the data held by the Scottish Government.

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17745 by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 November 2008, how many appeals by retired NHS staff against pay banding are outstanding following assimilation under Agenda for Change, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: The data collected by the Scottish Government does not detail either the number of specific review requests submitted or how many of these are from retired members of staff. Current data collection covers both the number of posts for which review requests have been received and the number of postholders affected by review requests.

  It is possible that the outcome of review requests received from either current or retired staff will affect a number of retired staff around the country. However, it is not possible to identify the numbers involved from the data held by the Scottish Government.

NHS Staff

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Agenda for Change assimilation process has been completed for all staff.

Nicola Sturgeon: Significant progress on assimilation has been made during 2008. End of December figures indicate that over 138,000 substantive NHSScotland staff have now been assimilated to Agenda for Change. Health boards are continuing to work very hard to complete the assimilation process but some 960 substantive staff around the country remain to be placed on Agenda for Change scales.

  A proportion of those left to assimilate are cases where there is some difficulty with identifying the correct banding or where a special job evaluation process is required. Boards have left these posts till last and will be working through any issues which need to be addressed in assimilating these staff over the next few months in partnership with trade union and professional organisations.

Non-Departmental Public Bodies

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the chair of any non-departmental public body (NDPB) or government agency is eligible for inclusion in the civil service pension scheme and whether any such person has been admitted to the scheme in the last two financial years.

John Swinney: In circumstances where the chair of an NDPB or a government agency also performs an executive function they may be admitted to the Civil Service pension arrangements.

  For NDPBs where the Scottish Government has a direct interest, no chairperson in the last two years has been admitted to the Civil Service pension arrangements.

Planning

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism was aware of the £30,000 donated to the SNP by Mr Donald Macdonald of Aviemore Highland Resort when meeting representatives of Macdonald Hotels, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Highland Council and the Minister for Community Safety in Aviemore on 26 October 2007.

Jim Mather: As with all donations above £5,000, the donation was registered with the Electoral Commission and had been a matter of public record since 21 August 2007.

Planning

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, with or without officials, met Mr Donald Macdonald of Aviemore Highland Resort or representatives of Macdonald Hotels at any time between his appointment as a minister and his meeting with representatives of Macdonald Hotels, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Highland Council and the Minister for Community Safety in Aviemore on 26 October 2007 and, if so, on what dates.

Jim Mather: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19043 on 25 February 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Planning

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when a report and statement on the extent to which the National Planning Framework participation statement was adhered to will be laid before Parliament.

Stewart Stevenson: The annex to the latest version of the Participation Statement (posted on the government’s website on 12 December 2008) includes an interim statement on the extent to which ministers consider they have conformed with the Participation Statement to date. This interim report has been made available to inform the Parliament’s consideration of the proposed NPF2.

  The NPF2: Participation Statement Interim Conformity Report can be found at:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/National-Planning-Policy/themes/npf/NPF-PS.

Planning

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to objective two in the National Planning Framework participation statement, how it ensured that the selection of participants was representative of the public, private, voluntary, academic and community sectors and of the various equality groups.

Stewart Stevenson: The Scottish Government’s actions in seeking to fulfil each of the NPF2 participation objectives are set out in the Interim Conformity Report which is included as an annex in the latest version of the Participation Statement which was posted on the Scottish Government’s website on 12 December 2008.

  The NPF2: Participation Statement and Interim Conformity Report can be found at:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/National-Planning-Policy/themes/npf/NPF-PS.

Planning

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information was given in the National Planning Framework participation statement about when consultation was likely to take place.

Stewart Stevenson: The schedules set out in the NPF2: Participation Statement have outlined the nature of stakeholder engagement undertaken to date. They have set out how, when and with whom engagement in the preparation of Scotland’s NPF is or has taken place.

  The NPF2: Participation Statement can be found at:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/National-Planning-Policy/themes/npf/NPF-PS.

Poverty

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the first meeting of the Community Regeneration and Tackling Poverty learning network was held.

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the next meeting of the Community Regeneration and Tackling Poverty learning network will be held.

Stewart Maxwell: The launch of the Community Regeneration and Tackling Poverty learning network will be on Tuesday 27th January 2009. The network is new, but it builds on the work of earlier stakeholder fora supported by the Scottish Government. It now brings together in a more joined up way colleagues engaged in important linked areas such as community regeneration, financial inclusion, income inequality, employability and health inequalities.

  It will focus on practical issues highlighted by local partners, notably in the context of rolling out the Fairer Scotland Fund over the past year; and it will involve a series of workshops and other events designed to meet the learning needs identified by network members.

Prison Service

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive at what point the number of prisoners reached a peak and what that number was in each of the last 10 years.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  The following table gives the maximum prisoner population during each calendar year from 1998 to 2008 and the date on which this maximum occurred.

  Early release of prisoners from prison on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) was introduced on 3 July 2006. For the purpose of providing a more complete reply the HDC figure for the relevant dates for 2006 to 2008 have been added as these prisoners would have otherwise been detained in prison and is more indicative of the overall prisoner population.

  

 Year
Maximum PrisonerPopulation
 Date
 HDC Numbers on Relevant Dates
 Combined HDC / Highest Prisoner Population on Identified Dates


 1998
 6,334
 25 March 1998
 Not Applicable
 6,334


 1999
 6,311
 23 March 1999
 Not Applicable
 6,311


 2000
 6,103
 6 June 2000
 Not Applicable
 6,103


 2001
 6,385
 27 June 2001
 Not Applicable
 6,385


 2002
 6,723
 30 May 2002
 Not Applicable
 6,723


 2003
 6,740
 18 Sept 2003
 Not Applicable
 6,740


 2004
 7,044
 16 March 2004
 Not Applicable
 7,044


 2005
 7,100
 8 Dec 2005
 Not Applicable
 7,100


 2006
 7,330
 19 Sept 2006
 158
 7,488


 2007
 7,567
 17 Sept 2007
 294
 7,861


 2008
 8,189
 15 Sept 2008
 356
 8,545

Prison Service

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, what the reasons are for the Alcohol Awareness Programme not being offered to prisoners at HMP Dumfries or HMP Kilmarnock.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

  The SPS delivers a suite of prisoner programmes and approved activities that address issues or provide awareness pertaining to substance misuse, including alcohol. This suite of interventions is continually evolving to keep pace with current practice and changes in substance abuse trends in the community.

  Whilst the approved activity "Alcohol Awareness" specialises specifically on alcohol, and mainly the physiological effects of alcohol misuse, the other approved activities cover wider substance related awareness and issues, including alcohol.

  Currently this suite of substance related interventions includes the prisoner programme Substance Related Offending Behaviour Programme (SROBP) and approved activities Drugs Action for Change; First Step; Smart Recovery and Alcohol Awareness in public sector prisons.

  Currently HMP Kilmarnock delivers substance related approved activities "Over-comers and Advanced Drug Awareness" and plans are in place for Kilmarnock to introduce SROBP this year (2009-10).

  Currently HMP Dumfries delivers approved activity "First Step" and the Prisoner Programme "Constructs". The aggregated risk and needs profile of prisoners at Dumfries indicates that this is the best use of the available resources at this time. Prisoners also have access to an Enhanced Addictions Casework Service (EACS) with interventions including alcohol assessment, one-to-one, group work and smoking cessation support.

Prison Service

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, how much it cost to run and how many prisoners took part in the Alcohol Awareness Programme in the last year, broken down by prison.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  The cost for delivering the approved activity "Alcohol Awareness" is not separately available. It is contained within the general programme costs.

  The following number of prisoners completed the approved activity "Alcohol Awareness" during 2007-08, broken down by prison:

  

 Barlinnie
 25


 Edinburgh
 47


 Glenochil
 19


 Perth
 49


 Shotts
 47


 Polmont
 60


 Aberdeen
 35


 Cornton Vale
 18


 Greenock
 52


 Inverness
 11


 Peterhead
 39


 Total
 402

Prison Service

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, how the Scottish Prison Service evaluates the Alcohol Awareness Programme.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

  The SPS-developed approved activity "Alcohol Awareness" is, as described, an awareness intervention. It focuses on the physiological effects of alcohol misuse.

  There are built in pre and post-evaluation questionnaires that measure the level of improved awareness of alcohol misuse issues of those prisoners who have participated in the intervention.

Prison Service

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18896 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 January 2009, what the duration is of the Alcohol Awareness Programme and what it involves for participants.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  The SPS developed Approved Activity "Alcohol Awareness" is a 16-hour awareness intervention.

  It focuses mainly on the physiological effects of alcohol misuse and why it can become addictive. It also looks at reasons why people become addicted to alcohol and how situations where alcohol can lead to offending behaviour can be avoided.

  It is emphasised that this is an awareness intervention, which is reflected in the short duration of the activity.

Prison Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18262 by Kenny MacAskill on 8 December 2008, whether medical information obtained (a) on admission, (b) from any health screening undertaken, (c) from any health education or improvement programme and (d) from any attendance at a medical or nursing centre or any specific physical, mental or dental service is conveyed to the prisoner’s general medical or dental practitioner on release.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

  Any significant medical information recorded in the prisoner’s Health Care Record which was obtained either on admission, from any health screening undertaken, from any health education or improvement programme, or from any attendance at a medical or nursing centre or any specific physical or mental service will be considered for inclusion in the prisoner’s discharge summary upon release.

  There is currently no arrangement in place to convey any dental information to a prisoner’s community dental practitioner upon release.

Public Sector Staff

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many and which of its or its agencies’ senior officials receive private medical insurance as part of their remuneration packages.

John Swinney: None of the remuneration packages for Senior Civil Servants employed by the Scottish Government includes provision for private medical insurance.

Public Services

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17677 by John Swinney on 14 November 2008, whether it is now in a position to detail the status of the new scrutiny bodies announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on 6 November 2008 ( Official Report c. 12077).

John Swinney: Discussions are currently being held with the existing health and social care bodies to help establish the relevant scrutiny bodies and decisions on their structure and functions have yet to be made.

Public Services

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-17678 by John Swinney on 14 November 2008, when it will publish its response to the Accountability and Governance Action Group on its recommendations on issues such as guaranteeing independence from government for scrutiny bodies.

John Swinney: The Accountability and Governance Action group was one of five groups set up last year. The final action group to report published its report on 13 January 2009. I expect to publish a composite response to the Accountability and Governance Action Group, and the other four action groups, shortly. This composite response from the Scottish Government will address the interconnected issues, addressed by all the action groups in their work.

Respite Care

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional weeks of respite care are being provided by each local authority in 2008-09.

Shona Robison: We have agreed with COSLA that local authorities will provide an additional 2,000 respite weeks in 2008-09. These additional weeks will be measured using the baseline of Audit Scotland’s Statutory Performance Indicators figures on respite in 2007-08.

  We have also agreed with COSLA that they will monitor the delivery of the additional respite weeks and will report to the Scottish Government with total Scotland-wide figures.

  The Audit Scotland Performance Indicator figures showing the baseline for each local authority for 2007-08 were published in December 2008. The break-down of additional respite weeks to be provided by each authority in 2008-09 is not yet available. COSLA officials are liaising with local authorities regarding the arrangements for collecting information to monitor the delivery of the commitment.

Respite Care

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional weeks of respite care are to be provided by each local authority in 2009-10.

Shona Robison: We have agreed with COSLA that local authorities will provide an additional 6,000 respite weeks in 2009-10. These additional weeks will be measured using the baseline of Audit Scotland’s Statutory Performance Indicators figures on respite in 2007-08.

Road Accidents

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) fatal and (b) non-fatal accidents there have been on each trunk road in the Lothians since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Stewart Stevenson: The number of fatal and non-fatal accidents on each trunk road in the Lothians, broken down by local authority area, is shown in the following tables.

  All Lothian Trunk Roads Accidents by Year / Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 6
 24
 155


 2000
 5
 28
 140


 2001
 3
 19
 178


 2002
 5
 24
 132


 2003
 3
 19
 156


 2004
 1
 20
 149


 2005
 2
 17
 117


 2006
 4
 27
 162


 2007
 5
 26
 148


 *2008
 2
 3
 66


 Total
 36
 207
 1403



  West Lothian M8 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 2
 27


 2000
 0
 5
 21


 2001
 1
 3
 36


 2002
 1
 1
 20


 2003
 1
 2
 30


 2004
 0
 4
 21


 2005
 0
 1
 21


 2006
 1
 2
 17


 2007
 3
 1
 18


 *2008
 1
 1
 15


 Total
 8
 22
 226



  West Lothian M9 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 1
 7


 2000
 0
 2
 6


 2001
 0
 2
 12


 2002
 0
 0
 8


 2003
 0
 1
 7


 2004
 0
 0
 9


 2005
 0
 1
 4


 2006
 0
 3
 9


 2007
 0
 3
 9


 *2008
 0
 0
 1


 Total
 0
 13
 72



  East Lothian A1 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 5
 7
 29


 2000
 3
 8
 21


 2001
 1
 5
 30


 2002
 3
 11
 25


 2003
 1
 7
 26


 2004
 0
 5
 17


 2005
 1
 4
 20


 2006
 1
 2
 20


 2007
 2
 3
 17


 *2008
 0
 0
 8


 Total
 17
 52
 213



  East Lothian A720 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 1
 1


 2000
 0
 0
 2


 2001
 0
 0
 2


 2002
 0
 0
 2


 2003
 0
 0
 2


 2004
 0
 0
 3


 2005
 0
 1
 0


 2006
 0
 1
 2


 2007
 0
 0
 4


 *2008
 0
 0
 1


 Total
 0
 3
 19



  Midlothian A68 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
(a)
(b)


 
Fatal
Serious
Slight


1999
1
2
26


2000
0
4
12


2001
1
2
9


2002
1
3
12


2003
0
1
5


2004
0
2
12


2005
0
3
6


2006
1
8
12


2007
0
4
16


*2008
0
0
8


Total
4
29
118



  Midlothian A720 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 1
 2


 2000
 0
 1
 9


 2001
 0
 0
 3


 2002
 0
 0
 5


 2003
 0
 0
 6


 2004
 0
 0
 6


 2005
 0
 1
 4


 2006
 0
 0
 13


 2007
 0
 1
 5


 *2008
 0
 0
 3


 Total
 0
 4
 56



  Midlothian A702 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 3
 9


 2000
 2
 3
 3


 2001
 0
 2
 8


 2002
 0
 5
 11


 2003
 1
 4
 22


 2004
 0
 4
 14


 2005
 0
 2
 8


 2006
 0
 2
 14


 2007
 0
 4
 6


 *2008
 0
 2
 4


 Total
 3
 31
 99



  City of Edinburgh M9 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 0
 9


 2000
 0
 0
 9


 2001
 0
 0
 8


 2002
 0
 0
 5


 2003
 0
 0
 5


 2004
 0
 0
 5


 2005
 0
 1
 7


 2006
 0
 1
 6


 2007
 0
 3
 6


 *2008
 0
 0
 2


 Total
 0
 5
 62



  City of Edinburgh M8 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 3
 10


 2000
 0
 3
 28


 2001
 0
 1
 31


 2002
 0
 1
 14


 2003
 0
 2
 11


 2004
 0
 3
 16


 2005
 0
 0
 17


 2006
 0
 1
 25


 2007
 0
 0
 13


 *2008
 1
 0
 7


 Total
 1
 14
 172



  City of Edinburgh A720 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 4
 34


 2000
 0
 2
 29


 2001
 0
 4
 37


 2002
 0
 2
 27


 2003
 0
 2
 38


 2004
 1
 0
 43


 2005
 1
 3
 29


 2006
 0
 7
 42


 2007
 0
 7
 52


 *2008
 0
 0
 17


 Total
 2
 31
 348



  City of Edinburgh A702 Accidents by Year/Severity

  

 
 (a)
 (b)


 
 Fatal
 Serious
 Slight


 1999
 0
 0
 1


 2000
 0
 0
 0


 2001
 0
 0
 2


 2002
 0
 1
 3


 2003
 0
 0
 4


 2004
 0
 2
 3


 2005
 0
 0
 1


 2006
 1
 0
 2


 2007
 0
 0
 2


 *2008
 0
 0
 0


 Total
 1
 3
 18



  Notes:

  * 2008 data is from 1st January 2008 to 31 July 2008

  Only accidents which result in a personal injury are recorded. Non-injury accidents are not included in the figures.

  The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere because they were extracted on a different date and the database may have changed between the two dates, for example. due to late returns or corrections to earlier returns.

Roads

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on upgrading each trunk road in the Lothians in each year since 1999.

Stewart Stevenson: Details of expenditure on upgrading each trunk road in the Lothians in each year since 1999 are shown in the following table.

  

 Route
 2001-02 £ million
 2002-03 £ million
 2003-04 £ million
 2004-05 £ million
 2005-06 £ million
 2006-07 £ million
 2007-08 £ million
2008-09£ million


 A1
 2.32
 22.03
 3.89
 9.22
 0.74
 0.30
 0.62
 


 A68
 
 
 0.15
 0.26
 2.67
 8.87
 20.02
 11.053


 A702
 
 
 0.22
 1.22
 1.36
 0.94
 
 


 A720
 0.16
 0.18
 0.12
 0.11
 0.02
 0.39
 0.14
 


 M8
 
 0.10
 
 
 
 
 
 3.40



  The figures shown above are rounded to the nearest £0.01 million. They are for new construction and minor improvement schemes that have been completed and do not include maintenance costs. They exclude preparation costs on schemes where construction has not yet begun.

  Complete figures for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 are not available. The figures for 2008-09 show the estimated outturn but some minor adjustments may still be made until the accounts for the year are closed.

Roads

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many objections to the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route came from addresses without an AB postcode; what proportion of the total number of objections that constitutes; what the cost of handling these objections is likely to be; what part of that cost will be borne by Aberdeen City Council as part of its contribution to the project cost, and what delays have derived from such objections.

Stewart Stevenson: A total of 9,379 objections were received. Analysis shows that a total of 6,723 households submitted an objection. Of this 1,752 (26%) were from outwith the AB postcode area and came from other parts of the UK and overseas.

  Each objection was analysed individually. Some were postcards or e-mails raising standard points which could be answered quickly by providing standard answers and others raised a number of specific points requiring individual answers. Responding to what was a very large number of objectives has incurred a proportionate commitment of resources in terms of time and money, however it is not possible to accurately isolate this from the overall preparation costs.

  The cost of responding to objections is included in the consultants fees which are allocated across the scheme. Aberdeen City Council will pay 9.5% of the costs of the Northern Leg and Southern Leg as per the Memorandum of Understanding between the Project Partners.

Roads

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on which criteria the Inverness trunk link route between the A9 and A82 fell short in determining whether it should be funded under plans announced as part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review.

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will set out its reasons for not including the Inverness trunk link route between the A9 and A82 in its recent announcements about the Strategic Transport Projects Review.

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish all the advice that Scottish ministers received on the case for the Inverness trunk link route in preparation for its decision not to include any part of the route between the A9 and A82 in the Strategic Transport Projects Review.

Stewart Stevenson: The Scottish Executive has already published this information as part of the outcome of the Strategic Transport Projects Review which was announced in Parliament on 10 December 2008.

  This information is available on the Transport Scotland website at:

  http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/stpr.

Roads

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it intends to have with stakeholders in North Ayrshire in relation to the upgrading of the Dalry bypass.

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it intends to have with North Ayrshire Council in relation to the upgrading of the Dalry bypass.

Stewart Stevenson: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-16500 on 2 October 2008.

  Discussions have taken place with representatives from North Ayrshire Council, Statutory Consultees and the land owners likely to be affected by the proposals with a view to identifying the preferred route for a Dalry Bypass.

  Transport Scotland will continue to engage in such discussions throughout the preparation of detailed design programmes for all projects and strategic interventions resulting from the Strategic Transport Projects Review, including the proposed bypass at Dalry.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Roads

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many non-trunk roads were included in the recent Strategic Transport Projects Review for expenditure during the period covered by the review.

Stewart Stevenson: An upgrade to the A801 has been included in the Strategic Transport Projects Review as part of the intervention to improve access to the Grangemouth port and freight hub.

Roads

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many miles of new trunk road will be created under plans recently announced in the Strategic Transport Projects Review.

Stewart Stevenson: The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) has recommended 29 transport interventions over the next 20 years that will let us plan for the delivery of an efficient, integrated transport network fit for the 21st century.

  The STPR has identified a hierarchy of maintaining and safely operating existing assets, making better use of existing capacity and finally adding targeted infrastructure improvements where there are strategic gaps to the road and rail networks.

  Taking forward the detailed design and development work arising from this hierarchy will confirm the extent of additional trunk road.

Roads

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many road projects announced in the Strategic Transport Projects Review are to be jointly funded by the Scottish Executive and a local authority or authorities.

Stewart Stevenson: The Strategic Transport Projects Review itself is not a funding document. It provides a robust framework of prioritised schemes, the delivery of which will be prioritised in each spending review.

Roads

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will reverse its decision not to fund the Inverness trunk link route connecting the A9 to the A82.

Stewart Stevenson: No.

  I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-18746 on 8 January 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Roads

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the proposed Inverness trunk link route between the A9 and A82 should be designated as a new trunk road.

Stewart Stevenson: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-18746 on 8 January 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Rural Development

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural development contracts have been awarded that include financial reward for the maintenance and enhancement of peatlands.

Richard Lochhead: A total of ten applications containing peatland management options have been submitted to the Rural Development Contracts - Rural Priorities element of the Scotland Rural Development Programme. Eight of these have been approved.

Scottish Futures Trust

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how the NHS will be able to access capital funding from the Scottish Futures Trust.

Nicola Sturgeon: As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth has made clear on a number of occasions, the Government’s strategic business case for the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), published in May 2008, does not currently envisage SFT as a direct provider of capital funding. NHS boards are drawing on SFT’s knowledge and expertise in relation to capital projects, for example through the Hub initiative, to help ensure maximum value for public investment in these projects.

Scottish Government Announcements

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many press releases have been issued by its Communications Directorate in each month since May 2007.

John Swinney: The information sought is set out in the following table. The figures show both the national and local news releases issued each month.

  

 Period
 Numbers


 May 2007
 30


 June 2007
 104


 July 2007
 129


 August 2007
 190


 September 2007
 187


 October 2007
 167


 November 2007
 136


 December 2007
 220


 January 2008
 194


 February 2008
 220


 March 2008
 160


 April 2008
 176


 May 2008
 170


 June 2008
 311


 July 2008
 99


 August 2008
 132


 September 2008
 225


 October 2008
 203


 November 2008
 208


 December 2008
 149


 Total
 3,410

Scottish Government Communications

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what changes there have been in the provision of telephone services to its offices since May 2007.

John Swinney: Telephony Services used by the Scottish Executive are managed by Information Services and Information Systems (ISIS), a division of the Change and Corporate Services Directorate. Telephony services are supported by internal staff and delivered by a number of suppliers. There have been no significant changes to service and support contracts since May 2007.

  Telephony Services are currently provided by THUS, C&W, and BT.

  The principal contract for hardware maintenance of Scottish Government telephony systems is held by Affiniti.

  The value for money in the provision of telephony services is regularly tested by procurement competition. The current voice services contract with THUS is due to expire in March 2009. A procurement competition is almost complete and due to award a new contract for voice services in January 2009.

Scottish Government Procurement

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it estimates that it owes to suppliers for the provision of goods and services and what action it is taking to speed up payment.

John Swinney: The total value of invoices outstanding at 6 January 2009 was just under £800,000.

  Suppliers’ terms vary but are typically 30 days. The Scottish Government is committed to helping businesses by paying invoices early and, to that end, the First Minister announced on 9 October 2008 the intention to pay invoices within 10 working days. Processes have been reviewed and amended as necessary to facilitate this and we have made significant progress in achieving this goal with 84% of invoices paid within 10 working days in December 2008 and 97% of invoices paid within suppliers terms over the same period.

Sectarianism

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18765 by Stewart Maxwell on 18 December 2008, which local authorities it designates as being within the Glasgow travel-to-work area and therefore eligible to apply for grants from Sense over Sectarianism.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government does not set the boundaries for areas eligible to apply for grants from Sense over Sectarianism. This is entirely a matter for Sense over Sectarianism.

Sex Offenders

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of sex offenders who completed a custodial sentence on 31 March 2008 and had been assessed during their sentence as suitable for participation in the Sex Offender Treatment Programme took part in the programme during their custodial sentence.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  Whilst the question seeks information for a specific date, for the purpose of answering this question we have presumed the interest was for statistics relating to the year ending 31 March 2008.

  As reported in our answer to question S3W-16676 on 24 October 2008, there was a total of 150 sex offenders liberated from Scottish prisons in 2007-08.

  Of these 70 (49%) were deemed as suitable for participation on Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTPs), 59 (39%) completed SOTPs before release from prison whilst the remaining 11 (7%) either dropped out of the programmes after starting, refused a place on the programmes when offered or had insufficient time left in their sentence to complete the programme before liberation when a place became available.

  The remaining 80 (51%) who were not assessed as suitable for SOTPs either refused assessment for SOTPs, indicated they would not participate on the programmes or had insufficient time in their sentence to complete the programme before liberation.

  These figures are consistent with expected trends for SOTP assessment, drop-out rates and delivery.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Sex Offenders

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-16681 by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2008, when information on the proportion of sex offenders having received rehabilitation treatment prior to release will be made available.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

  Rehabilitation treatment covers the full range of interventions and support services provided by SPS. These include: Prisoner Programmes, Approved Activities, Education & Work opportunities, Links Support Services (accommodation, benefits, etc.), and health care and statutory supervision requirements. Due to the nature of their offence the majority of sex offenders are subject to statutory supervision and all will have had access to some of the services listed above, therefore all sex offenders will have received some form of rehabilitation treatment prior to release.

State Hospital

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to ensure that when provision at the State Hospital is reduced to 140 beds there will be adequate provision in high, medium and low secure units for (a) male and (b) female offenders requiring inpatient treatment.

Nicola Sturgeon: The current policy on the management of mentally disordered offenders was established in January 1999 and is outlined in the document Health, Social Work and related services for Mentally Disordered Offenders in Scotland (Scottish Office, 1999). The overall aim of that policy has been to co-ordinate care and support for the benefit of the individual and to ensure public safety. The continuing direction of that policy since 1999 has resulted in the creation in Scotland of two regional medium secure facilities.

  The Orchard Clinic, which opened in 2000 in Edinburgh, provides 50 medium secure beds primarily for the population of the East of Scotland. The Rowanbank Clinic opened last year in Glasgow and provides 74 beds, primarily for the West of Scotland. The creation of these new units has seen a reduction in the number of beds required at the State Hospital. Plans are also being progressed for additional medium secure facilities at the Murray Royal Hospital, Perth providing 32 male beds.

  Further work has been taken forward by the Forensic Network, the three regional planning partnerships and the Scottish Government to model the future requirement for beds and the outcome of that work was published as a health department letter (HDL(2006)48) in 2006. That 2006 HDL set out the government’s policy position with respect to the development of forensic mental health services in Scotland, the expectation that the forensic service configuration within Scotland is required to provide a full range of forensic inpatient services and the level at which those services should be commissioned. The commissioning structure recognised that it was not reasonable to expect each NHS board to provide services at each level in light of the relatively small numbers of patients involved and the specialised nature of the services (and staff) required to care for and treat these groups of patients. The expectation was and is that groups of NHS boards will come together to plan the provision of some services on a regional basis, and that these regional planning groups have to plan for all services outside the state hospital to ensure patients move through the system once out of the State Hospital. Discussions continue in that regard between health boards themselves as to how best to meet the need of these particular patient groups, and the Scottish Government continues to meet with the regional planning leads to monitor progress in relation to these services.

Student Finance

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many independent students (a) qualified for and (b) received an additional loan in each of the last five years.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of students qualifying for the additional loan is not held centrally. The number of full-time independent students entitled to the additional loan is shown in the following table:

  Independent Full-Time Students Entitled to the Additional Loan

  

 Academic Year
 Number of Students


 2003-04
 330


 2004-05
 390


 2005-06
 370


 2006-07
 400


 2007-08
 475



  Source: SAAS.

  Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

  Independent students are only entitled to the Additional Loan if their status has changed during their course i.e. they get married or have a child and are therefore classed as independent AND they had been entitled previously to the additional loan, provided the income of their partner (if they married) remains below the threshold. Therefore only a small number of independent students receive the additional loan.

Student Finance

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount was of additional loans to independent students in each of the last five years.

Fiona Hyslop: The total amount of additional loan support assessed for full-time independent students is shown in the following table.

  Amount of Additional Loan Support Assessed for Full-Time Independent Students

  

 Academic Year
Amounts £000


 2003-04
 168


 2004-05
 204


 2005-06
 200


 2006-07
 222


 2007-08
 271



  Source: SAAS.

  Independent students are only entitled to the additional loan if their status has changed during their course i.e. they get married or have a child and are therefore classed as independent AND they had been entitled previously to the additional loan, provided the income of their partner (if they married) remains below the threshold. Therefore only a small number of independent students receive the additional loan.

Student Finance

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many Scottish students studying in the rest of the United Kingdom received (a) income assessed and (b) additional loans from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, broken down by (i) income, (ii) independent and dependent status and (iii) amount received.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of full-time Scottish students studying in the rest of the United Kingdom that were assessed for income assessed loans in the academic year 2007-08 is shown in table 1.

  Table 1: Scottish Full-Time Students Studying in the Rest of the UK Supported by Income Assessed Loans

  

 Parental/Spousal Income
 Independent
 Dependent


 Number
 Amount £000
 Number
 Amount £000


 Income not declared/required
 5
 8
 45
 106


 less than £10,000
 30
 56
 355
 733


£10,000 - £19,999
 15
 33
 390
 803


£20,000 - £29,999
 10
 27
 370
 902


£30,000 - £39,999
 0
 5
 305
 708


£40,000 - £49,999
 0
 3
 260
 378


£50,000 and over
 0
 1
 145
 136


 Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution
 510
 1,150
 0
 0


 Total
 575
 1,283
 1,870
 3,766



  Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

  Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

  Table 2 shows the number of full-time Scottish students who have been assessed for the Additional Loan in the academic year 2007-08.

  Table 2: Scottish Full-Time Students Studying in the Rest of the UK Supported by Additional Loans

  

 Parental/Spousal Income
 Independent
 Dependent


 Number
 Amount £000
 Number
 Amount £000


 Income not declared/required
 -
 -
 20
 12


 less than £10,000
 -
 -
 175
 102


£10,000 - £19,999
 -
 -
 200
 105


£20,000 - £29,999
 -
 -
 10
 1


£30,000 - £39,999
 -
 -
 0
 0


£40,000 - £49,999
 -
 -
 0
 0


£50,000 and over
 -
 -
 0
 0


 Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution
 -
 -
 0
 0


 Total
 5
 2
 410
 220



  Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

  Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

  Independent students are only entitled to the additional loan if their status has changed during their course i.e. they get married or have a child and are therefore classed as independent AND they had been entitled previously to the additional loan, provided the income of their partner (if they married) remains below the threshold. Therefore only a small number of independent students receive the additional loan.

Taxation

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact on the Scottish economy of the reduction in VAT announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 24 November 2008.

John Swinney: An assessment by the Scottish Government of the impact on the Scottish economy of the temporary reduction in VAT is available at Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Ref: 338(410.5) SCO2008/10 – Economic Impact of PBR VAT Cut in Scotland Relative to a Comparable Increase in Capital Investment in 2009 .

Taxation

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the economic impact of utilising the Scottish variable rate in reducing income tax.

John Swinney: A one pence cut in income tax via the Scottish variable rate would reduce the size of the Scottish Government Budget by approximately £400 million. This would need to be funded by direct cuts in public services and infrastructure investment in Scotland. Given this binding constraint and the current economic climate, we have not considered this a credible economic policy option. Our analysis shows that government expenditure and accelerated investment, which as announced in the Budget Bill 2009-10 are supporting 4,700 jobs in the economy, are vital in supporting the economy at this time.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much the remuneration package is for the chief executive of Transport Scotland, including any payments towards pension schemes, for 2008-09.

Stewart Stevenson: The remuneration package for the Chief Executive of Transport Scotland, including payments towards pension schemes is available in the Transport Scotland Annual Report and Accounts on the Transport Scotland website at:

  http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/reports/publications-and-guidance/corporate.

  The information relating to the 2008-09 financial year will not be made available until March 2009.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it to be reconcilable with principles of good governance that the chief executive of Transport Scotland also chairs its board.

Stewart Stevenson: Yes. Transport Scotland is an executive agency and its board is purely advisory; it has no statutory role. It is normal practice for the chief executives to chair the boards of executive agencies.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many board meetings of Transport Scotland there have been since May 2007 and what subjects were discussed at each meeting.

Stewart Stevenson: There have been 20 meetings of the Transport Scotland Board since May 2007. The following table provides dates and the agenda items discussed.

  

Meeting Date
Agenda Items


May 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Transport Scotland Internal Communications Audit


June 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Efficient Government Targets
Strategic Spending Review 2007
Transport Scotland Annual Report and Accounts 2006-07
High Level Output Statement


July 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Transport Scotland Annual Report


August 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Strategic Spending Review


September 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Corporate Risks
Transport Scotland Communications Strategy


October 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Transport Model for Scotland Annual Report
STAG Refresh Exercise Outcomes
Transport Scotland Business Plan 2007-08
Future Board Meetings
Ministerial Support


November 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Transport Scotland Business plan 2007-08
Strategic Spending Review


December 2007
Monthly Board Pack
Traffic Scotland Service
M74
Strategic Spending Review
Future Strategic Board meetings


January 2008
Monthly Board Pack
20MPH Zones at Schools
Corporate Business plan
Follow up on current financial position


February 2008
Monthly Board Pack
The Role Of The Transport Scotland Board
Climate Change
Transport Scotland Corporate Plan
Risk Register


March 2008
Monthly Board Pack
Transport Scotland Corporate Plan


April 2008
Monthly Board Pack
FOI Publication Scheme
Transport Scotland Corporate and Business plan 2008-09
Calendar of Board Discussion
STPR


May 2008
Monthly Board pack
Transport Scotland Business plan
Transport Centre of Excellence
Stakeholder Survey
Team Briefing


June 2008
Monthly Board Pack
Risk Workshop
Transport Scotland Annual Report, Corporate And Business Plans
Asset Management For The Scottish Trunk Road Network
The Role Of ITS In Delivering Government Objectives


July 2008
Monthly Board Pack
Scottish Landslides Study
Transport Scotland Annual Report


August 2008
Monthly Board Pack
Transport Scotland Audit Committee Chair Report
Climate Change Action Plan
Concessionary Fares
Transport Scotland Stakeholder Strategy
Transport Scotland Corporate Plan


September 2008
Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme



October 2008
Monthly Board pack
Audit Committee report
Rail Improvements in South West Scotland



November 2008
Monthly Board Pack
FOI Publication Scheme
ScotRail Franchise
Reviewing Board Performance
Horizon Scanning
Risk Register
Review Against Annual Business Plan Targets


December 2008
Monthly Board Pack
Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme
Staff Conference
Business Plan 2009-10
Road Maintenance

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions non-executive directors have been excluded from decisions of Transport Scotland and for what reasons.

Stewart Stevenson: Non-executive directors play a full part in the Transport Scotland Board and have not been excluded from any decisions taken by the board.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the current term of office is of the chief executive of Transport Scotland.

John Swinney: The Chief Executive of Transport Scotland was appointed on 8 August 2005. While he has given notification of his intention to retire, the date when this will take effect is under discussion.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the board of Transport Scotland will meet next and what subjects will be discussed.

Stewart Stevenson: The Transport Scotland Board will next meet on 20 February; the agenda has yet to be finalised.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the arrangements are for appointment of non-executive directors of Transport Scotland.

Stewart Stevenson: Appointments of Transport Scotland non-executive directors are conducted in line with public appointment policies and procedures as set out in the Framework Agreement which can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/12/20114707/47079 .

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many vehicles are owned or leased by Transport Scotland and what action is being taken to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

Stewart Stevenson: Transport Scotland does not own or lease any vehicles. The agency has three cars on a one year hire contract.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time equivalent staff are employed by Transport Scotland.

Stewart Stevenson: As at December 2008, Transport Scotland has 291 employees, 22 of whom work part-time. The full-time equivalent is 283.79. This figure does not include consultants or agency workers.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures Transport Scotland follows in the provision of information to ministers to enable them to make decisions.

Stewart Stevenson: The Chief Executive of Transport Scotland is directly accountable to the Minister for Transport and is responsible for keeping the minister regularly informed and updated on all issues which fall within Transport Scotland’s remit. Detailed provisions are set out in the Transport Scotland Framework Document:

  http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/reports/publications-and-guidance/corporate/transport-scotland-framework-document.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of decisions is devolved to Transport Scotland by ministers.

Stewart Stevenson: The chief executive is the accountable officer for Transport Scotland and has direct responsibility for the operational management of Transport Scotland and for the efficient and effective management of its resources. The detailed financial delegations are set out in Annex 1 of the Transport Scotland Framework Document:

  http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/reports/publications-and-guidance/corporate/transport-scotland-framework-document.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the value of each contract over £1 million let by Transport Scotland since May 2007, also showing which contracts were let by decisons of the (a) Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change and (b) board of Transport Scotland.

Stewart Stevenson: Details of the contracts awarded by Transport Scotland on behalf of the Scottish ministers since May 2007 are set out in the following table.

  All contract award decisions were made on the basis of a programme of works agreed with the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change.

  

Name of Contract
Tender Value
Contract Award Date
Supplier


M8 M77 to Clyde Tunnel Westbound Reconstruction (Greenock)
£3,970,399.02
May 2007
Tarmac Construction Ltd


M8/A8 Bishopton & M8/C22 Overbridges Strengthening Works
£1,579,297.00
May 2007
Barr Limited


A9 Auchterarder to Whitemoss Northbound
£2,560,478.00
June 2007
Tarmac Construction Ltd


A9 Helmsdale to Ord of Caithness Improvements - Phase 2
£5,446,234.00
July 2007
RJ McLeod Ltd


M8 Dewshill to Shottsburn
£2,349,888.65
August 2007
Aggregate Industries UK Ltd


A737 Dalry Bypass Consultancy Commission for Design Services*
£2,449,070.00
August 2007
Mouchel Fairhurst Joint Venture


M90 Craigend to Bridge of Earn Southbound
£1,149,275.27
August 2007
Ennstone Thistle


A77 Haggstone Climbing Lane and A77 Glen App Improvement
£19,799,054.00
September 2007
RJ McLeod Ltd


A87 Varragill to Portree Phases 1 & 2
£1,677,176.00
September 2007
Leiths (Scotland) Ltd


Waverley Railway Project Engineering Services Adviser*
£2,357,149.00
September 2007
Scott Wilson Railways


A82 810 Achnambeithach Bridge Replacement
£2,502,865.00
September 2007
Morrison Construction Ltd


First Generation Traffic Scotland Operator Service*
£3,940,000.00
September 2007
Atkins


A90 Powrie Brae to Inveraldie Northbound
£1,060,837.53
October 2007
Tayside Contracts


M8 Duntilland Quarry Eastbound
£1,585,513.15
October 2007
Tarmac Constructions Ltd


A83 Inveraray
£2,262,270.70
October 2007
Ennstone Thistle


A90 Middle Essie
£1,195,831.03
October 2007
Ennstone Thistle


Rolling Stock Procurement Advisor*
£1,471,600.00
November 2007
Steer Davies Gleave


Rolling Stock Financial Advisor*
£1,368,378.00
November 2007
Grant Thornton UK LLP


A9 Kincraig
£3,515,652.00
November 2007
Ennstone Thistle


Supply and Installation of Variable Message Signs (VMS) and Signal Units
£8,496,473.00
November 2007
Techspan Systems


A76 Glenairlie Improvement
£4,903,789.00
December 2007
Raynesway Construction Ltd


A898 Erskine Bridge East Side Runway Beam Replacement
£2,750,296.00
December 2007
PC Richardson & Co Ltd


M74 Junction 11 to Gleck and Bog Bridge Northbound
£4,331,560.63
December 2007
Tarmac Constructions Ltd


Forth Replacement Crossing Multi Disciplinary Management Consultancy Commission*
£74,663,957.60
January 2008
Jacobs/Arup


A985 Devilla Forest Culross
£1,549,422.00
January 2008
Leiths (Scotland) Ltd


M9 - A9 Overbridge to M80 Junction Westbound
£2,531,999.31
February 2008
Cemex


M74 Uddingston to M73 Slip Road Northbound
£3,191,664.00
February 2008
Tarmac Construction Ltd


M8 Kingston Bridge Complex Bothwell Street Off Ramp Refurbishment
£4,481,286.99
March 2008
Graham Construction


Forth Replacement Crossing – Detailed Marine Ground Investigation
£2,109,755.00
April 2008
Glover Site Investigations Ltd


The M8 Harthill Footbridge Replacement
£5,112,438.00
May 2008
Raynesway Construction


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 1 Light and Heavy Rail Operations*
£1,137,500.00
May 2008
Arup


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 1 Light and Heavy Rail Operations
£1,189,600.00
May 2008
Atkins


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 1 Light and Heavy Rail Operations*
£1,313,283.00
May 2008
Halcrow


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 1 Light and Heavy Rail Operations*
£1,310,875.00
May 2008
Mott MacDonald


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 2 Physical Infrastructure and Buildings*
£1,087,600.00
May 2008
Arup


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 2 Physical Infrastructure and Buildings*
£1,254,000.00
May 2008
Parsons Brinckerhoff


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 2 Physical Infrastructure and Buildings*
£1,191,682.00
May 2008
Scott Wilson Railways


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 3 Environmental Issue*
£1,273,700.00
May 2008
ERM


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 3 Environmental Issue*
£1,082,100.00
May 2008
URS


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 4 Project Management*
£1,085,800.00
May 2008
Mace Ltd


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 4 Project Management*
£1,238,911.10
May 2008
Nichols


Multidisciplinary Framework Agreement Lot 4 Project Management*
£1,245,000.00
May 2008
Parsons Brinckerhoff


A737/A738 St James Interchange Old Woodwynd Road to Skew Bridge
£1,152,719.21
May 2008
Tarmac Construction Ltd


A90 Glendoick to Ardgaith - Eastbound Carriageway
£1,024,835.73
June 2008
Ennstone Thistle


M8 Blairmains to Blairmuckhill Eastbound
£2,090,324.93
June 2008
Tarmac Construction Ltd


M9 Pardovan to Burghmuir Eastbound
£1,117,754.40
June 2008
Cemex


Multiple Framework Agreement for In-House Project Management Personnel for Trunk Road Schemes*
£1,619,136.00
July 2008
Faber Maunsell


Multiple Framework Agreement for In-House Project Management Personnel for Trunk Road Schemes*
£1,053,188.00
July 2008
Grontmij


Multiple Framework Agreement for In-House Project Management Personnel for Trunk Road Schemes*
£1,276,720.00
July 2008
Mott MacDonald


Multiple Framework Agreement for In-House Project Management Personnel for Trunk Road Schemes*
£1,124,400.00
July 2008
Scott Wilson


Multiple Framework Agreement for In-House Project Management Personnel for Trunk Road Schemes*
£1,093,486.20
July 2008
Waterman Group


A96 Moss Street Keith
£1,593,497.30
July 2008
Ennstone Thistle


Management, Operation and Development of the Scottish Roads Traffic Database (SRTDb)*
£3,186,154.50
August 2008
IBI Group


M8 Newhouse to Duntilland Phase 1 Eastbound
£1,994,735.35
August 2008
Aggregate Industries UK Ltd


M74 Gleck and Bog Bridge to Junction 11 Southbound
£4,093,187.56
August 2008
Tarmac Construction Ltd


A898 Erskine Bridge New Permanent Under deck Gantries
£2,243,112.00
September 2008
C Spencer Ltd


A90 The Snabs to Star Farm Eastbound
£2,195,157.82
October 2008
Tayside Contracts


A96 Darnaway Junction to Brodie
£1,649,888.38
October 2008
Leiths (Scotland) Ltd


M8 Duntilland Road to A73 Phase 1 Westbound
£1,014,931.75
October 2008
Tarmac Construction Ltd



  Notes:

  1. The table does not include rail and trunk road contracts funded by the Scottish Government but where the Scottish ministers are not the contracting authority including the M74 Completion awarded March 2008 and A7 Auchenrivock awarded November 2008.

  2. For contracts marked with an asterisk, the tender value shown was calculated from indicative inputs for the services to produce a comparative cost of tender for the purposes of the tender competition. The actual value will vary and be determined by the actual scope of the services ordered by the employer.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what overseas visits have been undertaken by directors of Transport Scotland since May 2007 and at what cost.

Stewart Stevenson: The following table shows the overseas visits taken by Directors of Transport Scotland since May 2007 and their respective costs:

  

 Director
 Destination
 Cost


 Jim Barton
 Denmark
£601.33


 Jim Barton
 Paris
£275.23


 Jim Barton
 New Zealand
£0.00


 Jim Barton
 Helsinki
£454.33


 Jim Barton
 Marrakesh
£253.43


 Ainslie McLaughlin
 Paris
£213.14


 Ainslie McLaughlin
 Madrid
£352.27


 Guy Houston
 Barcelona
£231.66


 Guy Houston
 Barcelona
£178.70


 Bill Reeve
 Munich
£113.87


 Bill Reeve
 Brussels
£340.86


 Frances Duffy
 Paris
£233.14


 Frances Duffy
 Amsterdam
£277.56


 Frances Duffy
 Amsterdam
£509.93

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what methods of transport were used by directors of Transport Scotland when making official visits in 2007-08 and at what cost.

Stewart Stevenson: The methods of transport and associated costs of official visits by Transport Scotland Directors in 2007-08 are set out in the following table.

  

 Rail
£20,480


 Bus
£269


 Flights
£2,856


 Taxi
£1,665



  A total of seven day’s car hire was undertaken by directors in 2007-08 at a total cost of £178.50.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what Transport Scotland’s budget was for (a) participation and (b) public relations in 2007-08.

Stewart Stevenson: Separate figures for participation and public relations are not available. The costs are mainly subsumed within the Transport Scotland budget for communications which amounted to £115,000 in 2007-08.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what consultants were employed or commissioned by Transport Scotland in 2007-08 and at what total cost.

Stewart Stevenson: Transport Scotland employs number of suppliers to provide a wide range of services including consultancy. It is not possible to separate out the cost of consultancy work from the wider service provision.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how and to whom the chief executive of Transport Scotland intimated his intention to retire and when the retirement will take effect.

John Swinney: In line with normal practice the Chief Executive of Transport Scotland gave notification in writing of his intention to retire to the Scottish Government’s Director of Change and Corporate Services. The date of his retirement is under discussion.

Transport Scotland

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the arrangements are for the appointment of a new chief executive of Transport Scotland.

John Swinney: As with all Senior Civil Service (SCS) vacancies in the Scottish Government, the first consideration is whether there are any existing SCS staff available with the appropriate skills and experience to fill the post. David Middleton who is currently Head of the Scotland Office will be moving to become the Chief Executive of Transport Scotland on a date to be agreed.